Baby steps

Yikes, our store is taking a little longer than expected to get up and running! It's all there, but there's a problem with viewing it through Internet Explorer. The guys who developed the site are working on it, and should have everything sorted by the end of the week. Holding thumbs!

Until then, please use another browser to view our store - you'll find it at www.thecrazyauntcompany.co.za

This dress is one I added to the store yesterday - realised it was the first pink dress I've done! What do you think?

Size: 2 to 3 years

Price: R195

Houston, we have a problem

Erm, so, we have a slight problem with our online store. For now, could you please email me your orders and enquiries - narina@thecrazyauntcompany.co.za. Thank you for your patience!

Shop keeping (me busy)

So, I've been pretty busy lately working on our online store. Initially, I'd said it'd be up and running within a week - boy, was I wrong! – that was more than a month ago. The store is pretty much done – that's the home page I've attached here – and what I'm doing now is preparing stock. Cutting dresses, putting together designs for onesies, making bunting – because I work on Crazy Aunt in the evenings only, it's taking longer than I'd initially thought. Holding thumbs, though, I'll feel ready enough to open shop next week.

My baby bunting

So, what do you think of Crazy Aunt's bunting? I spent today submerged in fabric, cutting and sewing the bunting that we'll be selling in our new online store. Absolute bliss!
The store's taking a little longer than I expected to put together - I need to make extra stock, shoot it and upload it. But, I'm getting there!

For little dresses

I spent about two hours in a fabric store today, beside myself with excitement. There were so many gorgeous fabrics, I really had to hold back. (Didn't do such a good job!) Here are three pieces I bought, which will become dresses and bunting - can't wait to get cutting!

Stone grower, red heart, 0 to 3 months

When our online store goes live (which it will, once I've gotten my head around CSS), you'll be able to see the growers we have available, buy the one that you want, and let me know what you'd like embroidered on it. I think it will simplify the ordering process, which at the moment involves a lot of backwardsing and forwardsing on emails. To get the ball rolling, here's a pic of one of the growers we have available.

Price: R110, or R140 with a name embroidered

A very special "his & hers"

Downloading pics from my camera, I came across these two. I made the apron last year from treasured scraps of fabric I'd collected; a pre-wedding gift for my very special sister.

Store this

Love to shop? Excellent - because we're opening an online store! Yup, I'm hard at work cutting and prepping growers and getting everything ready; I hope to have the store up and running within the next two weeks.
The store should streamline the ordering process, and will make it easier for you to know what you're ordering. Plus, it'll save on to-and-fro emails, which means you'll receive your order sooner.
Watch this space - I'll keep you posted.

We heart Olivia

How beautiful is little Olivia? Her crazy aunt Amelia bought one of our reversible heart dresses and sent it over to her in England. How sweet are those little legs? Too precious!

On a practical note, the dresses are great for both summer and winter – pull on a pair of leggings and a long-sleeve top, wear the dress either way, and you have a bunch of different outfits. The dresses sell for R195 - drop me a line at narina@thecrazyauntcompany.co.za to order.

A window on the Crazy Aunt studio

At The Crazy Aunt Company, we try to be as considerate to the environment as possible. So, when we needed a pinboard, I shopped around on Gumtree for something I could reuse - and was pretty stoked when I found this window.


I took it apart, scraped it down, removed some of the glass and gave it a coat of paint.


And voila - I put pegboard into the frame, where our labels now hang, left three panes of glass in the window, which I'll use for notes, and turned the rest into a pinboard. It's a little too Biggie Best for me at the moment, but hey - the window is a whole lot more useful than it was a few weeks ago!

Fabric for an autumn dress

I bought this fabric a little while ago, thinking it could be turned into the cutest autumn dresses. Now I know you probably don't want to think about autumn just yet, but what do you think of this fabric?

Bag this

It's been a while since I posted pics of the little bags we do - so here you are! I have a cupboard full of fabric scraps, organized according to colour, and I often sit staring at it, combining different pieces and colours in my mind before pulling the fabric out and putting it together on my work bench. These bags are the result of those happy moments.
The two sides of the bag are different, and no two are ever the same. They're lined, wash well and are pretty indestructible.
Price: R85

Special offer

Because this month is all about love, we're selling all dresses made from this red and white heart fabric for R150, not R185. Please email me at narina@thecrazyauntcompany.co.za to place your order.

Flower scraps

I found this fabric in October, when I was up in the Midlands for my sister's wedding and spent hours scrounging through trailers of scrap material. It's one of my favourite pieces of blue and white fabric in my cupboard, and is such a tiny piece that I'm saving it for something special. Not too sure what, yet. Think I might combine it with navy and white polka dots for a little onesie, and am toying with the idea of making a headband. Wish there was enough to make a little dress!

Twin onesies

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a twin. I'd dress like my brother, tell people we were twins - until a hairdresser cut my hair as short as his. These days I still love the idea of being, or one day having twins - and so I get really excited when an order comes in for onesies for twins. Here's what we did for little Dominic and Elliott...